Schools, Banks shut branches as #EndSARS protest spreads

Physical bank transactions were on Monday morning hampered as some banks shut their branches amid continuing protest by youths demanding an end to bad governance and police brutality in Nigeria.

Curiously, there was no armed police personnel guarding some of the banks in parts of Lagos metropolis where our reporter visited.

Pain clothe security personnel who spoke with BusinessDay at different bank branches around Jakande Gate, Isolo, and Okota, in Lagos said their management ordered the branches closed for safety purposes.

“Oga we no open today because of the protest in front of our office. You fit to do your transactions online. Na so management talk,” said a guard at a bank branch at Jakande Gate, in Alimosho area of Lagos.

At an old generation bank branch at Okota-Ago Palace Way round-about, where #EndSARS protesters turned into a carnival ground, a guard said the bank had to be shut to forestall possible attack by hoodlums who may infiltrate the #EndSARS protest.

School premises in most parts of Lagos were also shut and students sent back home.
Many students who got their school earlier in the day were seen on the roads trekking home.

“Our headteacher asked us to go home today because some of our teachers did not come to school. Nobody to teach the class,” said one of the students at Okota.